My free, non-commercial website on Nonconformist minister Dr. William Bengo Collyer (1782-1854) of Hanover Chapel, Peckham, contains a number of items that may be of interest. The home page is at www.wbcollyer.org.

Dr. Collyer’s supporters were not just from Peckham/Camberwell. They came from all over the country – as far away as Bristol, Birmingham, Coventry, Devon, Leicestershire etc – as well as from Surrey, Kent, Middlesex and the City of London (including many merchants).

The material includes:

~ Transcript of Hanover Chapel baptism registers (1801-37) with index to parents and witnesses – 814 entries. (Details of witnesses do not appear in any other published index of the register.) Transcript of 1837-54 register (900+ entries) coming soon and then I’ll move on to the other Independent chapels in Camberwell (Grove, Mansion House, Marlborough chapels) http://www.wbcollyer.org/index.php?p=1_96

~ Subscribers to Dr. Collyer’s printed works (1809-23) – 2000+ entries. At some future date I will look at indexing the subscribers to works by some of Dr. C’s contemporaries. http://www.wbcollyer.org/index.php?p=1_13

~ London Missionary Society donors and subscribers (those connected with the Camberwell and Peckham branches). Lists for various years between 1818 and 1843 – these are regularly added to. http://www.wbcollyer.org/index.php?p=1_110

There are also some biographical notes on 100+ fathers of children baptised at Hanover Chapel – these notes are of varying detail and growing in number, and I would welcome any fully referenced contributions or corrections http://www.wbcollyer.org/index.php?p=1_93.

Southwark Local History Library has recently catalogued its archive of Hanover Chapel material (including lists of congregation members) and I intend to transcribe as much as possible for the site.

The site is a work in progress – I am aware some areas (eg the Who’s Who) need a lot more work.

You are welcome to use the material for private research but otherwise please contact me via the site for permission. In particular, I have had to pay a fee to the National Archives to use images of their material – please contact them if you wish to use their images.

Thank you for the hard work and interest in putting the information on a website. I have an interest in this topic but my family came on the scene much later and went to India & China with the LMS. But I found the information fascinating. Much appreciated. Gazania

Many thanks for your kind message. Southwark Local History Library have a lot of material on the dissenting chapels in the area going into the later period (their Hanover Chapel archive for instance goes well into the 20th century). If you are not already in touch with them I would urge you to make contact. Their holdings are not easily discoverable online. Included in the Hanover Chapel material are lists of contributions to the London Missionary Society going into the 1850s; the Library may have similar and later LMS material for other chapels in the area.

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